Facts: Alicia Vikander
Born: 1988 in Gothenburg.
Selected film roles: “A royal affair”, “Testament of youth”, “Ex machina”, “The Danish girl”, “Tomb raider”.
Received an Oscar in 2016 for best supporting actress for the role in “The Danish girl”.
After films such as “A royal affair” and “The Danish girl”, it seems that Swedish Alice Vikander has been placed in the union “the serious European actress”. Comedy is not something she has been allowed to play – until now.
– It has not existed in my universe before. Sometimes I meet people who say “but you are not as serious as I thought”.
“Irma Vep” is a television series in seven episodes on HBO Max directed by the Frenchman Olivier Assayas who has further developed his own cinema film from 1996. The feature film “Irma Vep” was about a director who will make a remake of the silent film “Les vampires” . An actress is called to Paris to do the lead role, but already on the first day there is a fight. The title itself comes from the French word for vampire whose letters are inverted.
Alicia Vikander at the premiere party for “Irma Vep” during the Cannes Film Festival. Stock Photography. Metafilm
In the TV series, Alicia Vikander plays an American actress, Mira, who will play the lead role in a similar remake. There are several twists that make this so much a metafilm that it’s almost impossible to explain – but it’s very entertaining.
– I have been involved from the start, says Alicia Vikander as an explanation for why she is also a producer.
She met director Olivier Assayas at a luncheon where he told about the plans to make a remake of his own film.
– I have read everything, all the different script versions, I worked on finding a company that would like to finance the series. Which, by the way, I see as a seven-hour long film. It is wonderful with a series that is so long and will not be continued, says Alicia Vikander.
The limousine
In the first scene, the celebrated actress Mira first gets out of the plane, is swept into a limousine and driven to a luxury hotel there in central Paris. A picture of how Alicia herself feels?
The question makes her laugh.
– Not very often. Maybe sometime when I’m pushing for a movie, but then it’s straight over to a cheaper hotel.
Next, she will make another “Tomb raider” movie, where she plays the adventurer Lara Croft.
– There is really no difference to this, it is another job to be done. I love making action movies, I want to do everything. One leads to the other.
She and her family spend a lot of time traveling – when Alicia Vikander films, her husband Mikael Fassbender is free and vice versa. At home in Lisbon, they have not seen much of the past year, and this summer they planned to visit Sweden. Alicia Vikander would like to record a film in Sweden again.
– I long to speak Swedish.
“Irma Vep” had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and will have its Swedish premiere on HBO Max on 7 June.
“Irma Vep” had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and director Olivier Assayas was there with Alicia Vikander. Press image.